As the Xbox 360 launch draws agonizingly close--games are already appearing in retail--the game industry is aquiver with anticipation. However, given that Microsoft has not yet announced a final launch lineup for the console, some industry-watchers are wondering if the next-generation console will stumble in its mad dash to be first out of the gate. Recently, UBS analyst Mike Wallace lowered his 2005 360 sales projections from 2.5 to 1.5 million units.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is optimistic about the Xbox 360's prospects. In fact, in public, executives for the Washington-based Software colossus are downright gung-ho, talking up the platform at virtually every high-profile game-industry event since the console was unveiled on May 12.

The latest example of salesmanship came today, courtesy of Bryan Lee, the chief financial officer of Microsoft's newly established Entertainment and Devices subdivision. In a presentation to the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference, the executive gave a very rosy forecast for the console. "I'm very proud to announce that we think through the first 90 days of launch...we expect to have sold 2.75 to 3 million consoles worldwide," said Lee.

While selling a lot of Xbox 360 hardware will help the platform get adopted, it will also cost Microsoft a bundle of money. Though the company won't discuss manufacturing costs, analysts estimate it is losing around $75 on each console sold. And while Lee didn't address the subject of the 360 being a loss-leader, he did talk about where Microsoft will make money off of the consoles.

"When you think about what consumers are going to be spending on consoles, and then you think about the games that they're going to buy along with them, you think about the peripherals, the accessories they're going to want, you think about the Live subscriptions they're going to want," said Lee.

Lee pegged total revenue generated by all Xbox 360 hardware and software at "well over" $1.5 billion in the console's first three months on the market. "I can't think of many other, if any other, products that have had an initial launch that have sold $1 1/2 billion to consumers in their first 90 days," he boasted.

The executive also paid the requisite lip service to the "HD Era," the coming mass adoption of high-definition televisions. "It is really the future of displays," he chimed. "There are millions out there and projections are that by 2008 there will be over 100 million high def displays out in the world."

Lee also spoke about how Microsoft is already experimenting with a potentially massive future driver of Xbox 360 revenue--in-game advertising. "We've actually got a couple of games out in the market now on the Xbox platform where we're trialing some ads and we've been working with Massive on those couple of games. ... We feel very excited about advertising as a potential growth opportunity for the business."

Interestingly, Lee also raised the possibility of ad revenues defraying the cost of a 360 in other countries. "[In] markets outside of North America, the fundamentals of our business may not hold," he said. "Consumers may not be accustomed to paying $50 for software and buying a $200, $300 or $400 device, an ad model may be a way to augment to kind of make the economics work for everyone."

Speaking of advertising, Lee also said a major Xbox 360 ad would run during tomorrow night's episode of Lost on ABC. ...

Revolution won't necessarily launch in Japan first, according to Nintendo Europe's senior vice president of marketing Jim Merrick, who also has some strong words for Epic Game's Mark Rein, who recently criticised the platform holder's next-generation plans.

Speaking in an interview with our sister site Eurogamer today, Merrick said Revolution might "not follow the stereotypical formula of Japan first, then the US, then Europe some time later". "Anything's possible," he said, when asked if the console could conceivably launch in Europe first.

Reacting to Mark Rein's recent suggestion that games using the Revolution's freestyle controller would be "gimmicky" and "cheap", Merrick paid tribute to Epic's strengths, but added, "he doesn't have a Revolution controller, he doesn't have a dev kit, he's talking about something he knows nothing about," before issuing something of a challenge - "if he'd like to get a dev kit and really dig into it, then I'd be interested to hear what he has to say."

Merrick also answered questions about pricing possibilities for the Revolution's back catalogue downloads, talked about other download possibilities, and confirmed that the console's 512MB of Flash memory will be expandable.

The Nintendo executive also reaffirmed, "I would be very disappointed if I went to E3 and didn't play Revolution games," and said that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was among developers working on the system. ...

Scattered reports from the US suggest that Microsoft's first party Xbox 360 games are starting to ship, despite the fact the console itself won't launch until November 22nd.

Both GameStop and EB Games are listing Kameo: Elements of Power as available to ship within 24 hours, and various gamers report receiving it.

Meanwhile, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 are expected to go on sale more than a week in advance of the console's US launch.

So far there's been no sign of the same happening on this side of the Atlantic, however, where Xbox 360 is set to launch on December 2nd, although most shops are full of placeholder boxes and other point-of-sale promotions. Retailers are expecting actual stock closer to release.

Games going on sale this far in advance of their home platforms is unusual, but it's not the first time games have made it out before consoles - some PSP games, for example, were widely available in the few days prior to the console's launch in the US and similarly in the UK. ...

New commercial game:



Mangaka Debut Monogatari DS: Akogare! Mangaka Ikusei Game is an adventure title in which you play as a young girl who hopes to become a comic artist. You'll work your way through three weeks of school as you learn basic knowledge of comics. The game includes mini games through which you collect items to build up your character. The stylus is used to create your own four frame comics, with the game including a full paint interface.

More info here --> http://www.yesasia.com/?/info.php?pro...3&lsaid=219793 ...

Fanjita has released a new version of the excellent Eboot Loader (Homebrew and Emulation Boot Loader) for the PSP Firmware 2.0 users, heres whats new in this latest release:

v0.8 : Usability, compatibility
- Added capability to reboot the PSP without holding the power button.
During any EBOOT, just hold Left Trigger, Right Trigger and START
buttons for 1 second to exit the loader and reboot back to the PSP
menu.
- Separated menu binary from loader binary, to allow custom menu creation.
Included custom menu by Calum.
- Added kernel-mode override facility - allows the loader to attempt
to load apps marked as kernel-mode, that don't really require
kernel access. This doesn't enable a huge number of apps, but it
does enable a few - e.g. ScummVM 0.5, PSPChess, Nethack. Expect more
progress in the future.
- Relax requirement to resolve all NIDs. Now you can choose to ignore
failed NIDs in the hope that they aren't required.
- Improved USER_LUA stability (by incorporating the 0.7 USER_LUA patch)
- Added PowerTick() call to prevent display dimming during play
- Skip calling .init code by default
- Allow easier co-existence of multiple loader versions.
- Improve memory and thread manager semaphoring.
- Added all remaining VSH-mode NIDs, thanks to Vampyre's work.
- Moved working EBOOT list to new web-page.
- Filled in some missing opcodes from the disassembler
- Added syscall dereferencing to disassembler
- Added hook to sceKernelCreateThread, to improve thread monitoring
- Reduced screen spam during loading, by moving it to debug-only build
- Attempt to load more of the ELF sections into RAM if appropriate
- Retired hokey malloc implementation during file load, use proper
memory blocks now.

Heres a list of newly working homebrew etc with this release:

New Working applications in this release:
- PSP Chess
- Nethack
- ScummVM PSP Beta5
- ODE Test
- Sudoku 1.0
- C64 PSP 0.2
- Ikuzo
- PSPGenesis 0.18c
- Germ-PSP 4k Intro
- PCE for PSP 0.7
- DOOM screen offset now fixed

Download Now via the comments.

Excellent work Fanjita ...

The latest rumor, generated from several patent sites, claims that Sony has secured a patent for a disk technology that prevents the use of used, as well as pirated, software. From the registered patent description:

”A device and method for protection of legitimate software against used software and counterfeit software in recording media… A specific title code is read, and if this title code has been registered, the main unit shifts to a normal operation. If the code has not been registered, verification software is initiated… If matching does not occur, the disk is processed as illegitimate software… Since only titles for which legitimate software has actually been purchased and which have been initially registered in the machine table can be used, resale (so-called used software purchase) after purchase by an end-user becomes practically impossible.”
Does Sony plan to employ this technology in the PlayStation 3? Not likely. If so, PS3 owners would not be able to rent (used) games or borrow their friends’ games—or even purchase used games! Sure, the technology could be used for Blu-Ray movies, but for games? It just won’t go down like that… right? ...

In the middle of last month, the Xbox 360 controller was discovered in stores, leaving many a gamer wondering why Microsoft would release a peripheral for a console not even available. Turns out that head-scratcher had a viable reason: The controller is also PC-compatible.

However, gamers who ordered Kameo: Elements of Power for the Xbox 360 may be in for another perplexing situation. Postmen all over the country are delivering the game to front doors a full two weeks before the retail launch of the Xbox 360.

One GameSpot editor got the game today directly from EBgames.com. The retailer's Web site, as well as that of GameStop, presents the following: "Usually ships in 24 hours." This means the game is physically in the company's warehouse.

GameSpot called an EB Games retail outlet, and the store expects to have Kameo in later today, as well as "possibly" Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3. All these games are published under the Microsoft Game Studios brand.

The product pages for PGR3 and PD0 show that EB expects the games to ship November 14 and 16, respectively. ...

The PSP NEWS & Lik Sang 30 Day Coding Comp are now here for you to see, heres a rundown of those entries and the persons involved:

The Entrants

William Edmeades - Loki (#1)

This is not a complete game but rather an insight to making this game and a demo of the game itself. I do not expect to win anything as it is not finished or tuned to perfection as it still has problems which can be easily solved and changed. I do not have the time at this moment to complete this project but if people find it interesting and want it completed, I will try my hardest to complete this project.

Do anything you want with this release, if you dont like it, Kill it. I will try to release a good LUA game with plenty of comments in the near future as long as everything that i plan goes well.

Stéphane Lévesque - Ikuzo (#2)

This game work on firmware 2.0, & 1.5

Deniska / NOIZ2SAv07 (#3)

NEW IN V0.7:

- tate mode: lot's of people requested this feature...More room for action & better scaling. looks and controls much like "Star Soldier"
Note: I desided to create a separate tate-mode version, since it's using different sized graphics. If you like the horizontal mode, stick to v0.6 for now.

- !!!!nicer graphics: customizable backgrounds, wireframe mode, semi-transparent shapes.
- new blue color scheme. If you like the original graphics, ovewrite the files in images directory with the stuff from images_classic.
You can still create your own color schemes/backgrounds/hud. Just edit the files in images directory.
- 50% new soundtracks..
- Menu graphics logic adjustments.
- Numerous optimizations and bug fixes.
- src code included..

Mike Haggar - PSPicross 0.2(#4)

Picross (a.k.a. nonogram, pic-a-pix, griddler, etc.) game for the PSP. Made in LUA for PSP.

Xul8t0r / Submission (#5)

Press X to start the game. Use the analog controller to move the pointer, and use X to fire a missile. You can only have one missile in the water at the time. Look at the small square in the down-left corner to see when you can shoot. Green means that you can shoot, while red means that you cannot. Try hitting the bigger boats for most points. You have 20 missiles, and there's 30 boats to hit. If you run out of missiles, or there's no boats left, then the game is over. You can press start at any time to quit the game.

PSmonkey / Quake 3 Bsp Map Viewer (#6)

This is a simple app writen over the past 2 days that lets you view a
quake 3 bsp map file on the psp. This is early alpha build!!

l33th4x0r / Connect 4 (#7)

2 player connect4

The downloads and screenshots can be found here --> http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/psp30codingcomp.shtml ...

The entries are in and ill be posting them all on a page tonight, then ill contact the 5 people i have chosen to review the entries and hopefully a winner can be chosen quickly from them.

thanks for your time ...